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HomeTrust Bancshares Inc Stock Upgraded (HTBI)

Editor's Note: Any reference to TheStreet Ratings and its underlying recommendation does not reflect the opinion of TheStreet, Inc. or any of its contributors including Jim Cramer or Stephanie Link.

NEW YORK (
TheStreet)
-- HomeTrust (Nasdaq:
HTBI) has been upgraded by TheStreet Ratings from hold to buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its growth in earnings per share, good cash flow from operations, expanding profit margins and notable return on equity. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had lackluster performance in the stock itself.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

HOMETRUST BANCSHARES INC has improved earnings per share by 7.7% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past year. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, HOMETRUST BANCSHARES INC increased its bottom line by earning $0.45 versus $0.21 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($0.67 versus $0.45).

Net operating cash flow has increased to $11.78 million or 27.19% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, HOMETRUST BANCSHARES INC has also vastly surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of -42.40%.

The gross profit margin for HOMETRUST BANCSHARES INC is currently very high, coming in at 103.36%. It has increased significantly from the same period last year. Despite the strong results of the gross profit margin, HTBI's net profit margin of 15.87% significantly trails the industry average.

HTBI, with its decline in revenue, slightly underperformed the industry average of 2.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 5.2%. The declining revenue has not hurt the company's bottom line, with increasing earnings per share.

The return on equity has improved slightly when compared to the same quarter one year prior. This can be construed as a modest strength in the organization. Compared to other companies in the Commercial Banks industry and the overall market on the basis of return on equity, HOMETRUST BANCSHARES INC underperformed against that of the industry average and is significantly less than that of the S&P 500.

HomeTrust Bancshares, Inc. operates as a bank holding company for HomeTrust Bank that provides various banking products and services in North Carolina. HomeTrust has a market cap of $297.8 million and is part of the financial sector and banking industry. Shares are down 2.1% year to date as of the close of trading on Tuesday.